Thread: Young and looking for advice

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really one of the top ten was built with less than 6k where would i find a pic or article about this car?

Check out this months Hot Rod Magazene. A Rat ,2 gassers, and a plain jane (on the out side) Sleeper among the top ten. What comes around goes around.

alright thank you very much. because I can't really afford to spend a ton and like to drive my cars and it will be a dailly driver in the summer time.

I think some of the fenderless VW rats are going to be the cheapest to build and maintain as a driver. The choped top gives it a real old car look. May not be everyones cup of tea, but then again none of these things are

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

You asked about the rat rod name vs the hot rod name. In the last couple of years this has become a very volatile subject. Most hot rodders resent their cars being called rat rods and see it as sort of an insult. What has caused this are the rat rods that are built badly and the attitudes of some rat rodders. Some of them like sticking our noses in it and generally having an "I don't give a d*** attitude."

That being said, rat rods do have their own style, and it is easy to tell one from a hot rod. I can't tell you the difference, but I know it when I see it.

If you are talking about a car that was built like they were done in the old days, you are more than likely talking about a traditional hot rod. It is just that now a days everything on wheels is being called a rat rod. Usually, the inexperienced are the ones doing this, and you just have to educate them when they make that mistake.

Don

dont forget to tell them how some of the hot rodders treat the rat rodder , reading through these threads should be evident . listen theres bad attitude on both sides . one thing i do agree with you on is back in the day they should never go there totally different thing .

Hot rodders treat rat rodders decent as long as the rat rodder dosn't have the I don't give a crap attitude, and build cars with inadaquate brakes/ other safty standards. If it's all good and safe ( front and rear brakes in working order, good solid floor, no craftsmen wrench pitman arms ect... ), I don't see a problem with them.

The car is going to end up a dailly driver in the summer months of wisocnsin (if we get them:-)) so its going to be safe. And my back in the day part was that I want it to be hard and mean looking I don't want a shinny show peice or a shinny car at all for that matter. Also is it cheaper to find parts out of a junkyard or ebay?

Well, as bad as Ebay can be in some respects, in another respect we could not build the old timey rods we do without it. Until Ebay came along, we knew someone somewhere had some obsolete part we were looking for, but how do you find that person? When Ebay came along all of a sudden garages and attics started giving up tons of hard-to-find parts that you might only find at a swap meet, if you were lucky.

Since I only build '50's style cars, I was in heaven when I started seeing parts like Oldsmobile starter switchover housings, 6 carb intakes, Buick finned brake drums, etc. suddenly become available. Before that I had to hit lots of swap meets and dig around under piles of parts to find that one special item.

Where the junkyard will come in for you is for more contemporary parts like transmissions, rear ends, etc. that you might find on Ebay, but that the shipping costs would kill you on. Also, chances of you finding old time parts in a junkyard are really slim if not impossible. So you will use Ebay for some stuff and junkyards for other parts.

Tip on Ebay. Do not be in any hurry to buy the first one you see. Wait, and another one will show up maybe with a different heading that makes it less seen, and the price will be much better. I rarely buy something on Ebay unless it is a real deal, and I look under obscure headings.

Consider also buying someone's unwanted project. The seller never gets out of it what he has invested in it, or what it would cost you to duplicate it. You just have to be sure that what you are buying is basically sound and has good construction that you can build off of.

Don

If you want a metal rod your choice may be limited by what you can find. If you choose fiberglass because you want a specific model then the work will be different. The "easy" formula from 20 years ago was to buy a fenderless roadster body out of fiberglass like a '27 or '29 Ford roadster replica and just focus on building up the drive line using a boxed stock frame or a pair of side rails with an aftermarket X-frame. That may still be the cheapest way to go unless you do happen to find some old metal car. However, as fiberglass bodies got more detailed it seems that everyone wants a '32 roadster or some other 'glass body which has more features than just a roadster. Back to the metal car approach, you can probably still find some older junk yards with early non-Ford metal bodies but the chances of finding a metal early Ford are very low since they have been bought up by rodders and restorers long ago. You can still find such cars for sale in Hemmings Motor News but the prices will be high even for rusted hulks. Overall for a cheap approach I kind of like the Speedway '27 or a fenderless '29 from one of the several 'glass mfgrs. Then again if you have cold winters a coupe is a lot more attractive and you will have to look for a more expensive 'glass coupe. Another approach is to find an early VW sedan and add a Socal front end and then look around for a Corvair flat six to put in the rear of the VW. I have purchased quite a few parts from Speedway and maybe you should take a look at their '27 roadster kit, but having said that I would warn you that the Speedway stuff "can" work but requires some careful thought and/or experience to make good use of the parts. A case in point is that I bought the Speedway stainless brake line kit and it is all good stuff, but that did not make me good at bending stainless tubing! (Maybe if I did it three more times I would get good at it.) There are many approaches to starting a low buck rod project but in the long run it will get expensive unless you are very lucky finding bargains. Another approach is to get something that runs but can be worked on over a long time period (years!). You might be surprised by people who have owned a typical '40 Ford coupe for over 50 years or more! With that kind of long term perspective you can make gradual changes and space out the cost.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

thanx guys. I over the last couple of years with my Javelin have realized that a project is never complete until you die because you always have new ideas that you wanna put in it. And thanx for the tips about the obscure headings on ebay and I will have to dig deep in the junk yards back home and out here in colorado for parts and bodys. I recently had an idea for a gas tank but im not sure if it would work or not or if it would be safe. I want to take a keg that at one point had beer in it and make it into a gas tank. what do you guys think?

theres a thread on here somewhere about the keg idea, i plan on that to, im gonna set it in the trunk so it looks like i have beer there

yeah thats exactly what i was thinkin haha

how young we talking here, i'm 19 and half way through my fiberglass T and FYI i've dropped about $10,000 on it soo far and i still have stuff like interior to sort out aswell purchase a stronger welder.

i would suggest something like a fiberglass T, as the frames are straightforward, and the bodies can be found decently priced. case in point i picked up a frame and body for $100 a couple weeks ago.

and bout the rat rod thing, i started out building one, however that has totally changed once i realized that i want to build it to the best of my ability. believe me, it may not be perfect however everyone will respect you when you built it, and with the budget you had.